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The national charity and leading voice for disabled people in sport and activity

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Our response to Sport England’s Active Lives 2021/22 report

Sport England's latest Active Lives Adult Survey report is the first release to cover a period without any coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions since the pandemic. Here, Activity Alliance responds and our research team looks closer at the data for disabled people. 

Inclusive sitting volleyball session

While activity levels for adults have returned to pre-pandemic levels, inactivity levels for disabled people have not. Disabled people remain one the least active groups, with 41% taking part in less than 30 minutes of activity a week. These findings highlight the continual need to work collectively with disabled people and organisations in the sector to achieve fairness in sport and activity.

Responding to the report Adam Blaze, Activity Alliance Chief Executive said:

"After concerns following the drop in activity levels for disabled people during and following the pandemic, we are pleased to see some encouraging changes. We continue to see organisations being passionate about including disabled people.  
"But this does not mean our efforts stop there. The reality is that disabled people are still far less active than their non-disabled peers. Today’s figures are a step in the right direction after the pandemic exacerbated and added to existing barriers that disabled people face. We cannot allow this glimmer of recovery to be negated by the ongoing inequalities that disabled people face when trying to be active.  
"Let’s build on this positive news today. Our work with Sport England and other partners is crucial to unite a movement that is inclusive and accessible. We will continue to work with leaders and their organisations across sport and activity to support our collective efforts to close the fairness gap, the gap between disabled and non-disabled people.. However, there is still more to be done as millions of disabled people across the country are not accessing opportunities to be active, and too many are still inactive. 
"We can change more people’s lives for the better, so more enjoy the physical, health and social benefits of being active. As the leading voice for disabled people in sport and activity, we will continue to work with our partners to change attitudes and embed inclusive practices. Without ensuring disabled people are part of this decision making and change, we are never going to see the active nation we really want. "

Inactivity levels for disabled people

Activity levels for the overall population have returned to a similar level as before the pandemic. The proportion of inactive people (doing less than 30 minutes of activity a week) has fallen by 1.4% to 25.8% (11.9 million). Disabled people remain one of the least active groups.

  • This year 41.0% (estimated 5.1 million [1] ) of disabled people were inactive, compared to 20.9% of non-disabled people. For disabled people, this is a significant decrease of 1.4% from the previous year.
  • Before the pandemic, disabled people’s inactivity levels were falling from 43.3% in 2015-16 to 39.8% in 2018-19 (pre-pandemic). During the pandemic, inactivity levels for disabled people rose to 42.5%. This year, the inactivity levels for disabled people have reduced to 41%, but not to pre-pandemic levels.
  • The fairness gap, measuring the difference between the proportion of inactive disabled people and inactive non-disabled people of 20.1% has also returned to a similar level to 2018-19 of 19.3%.

What could be the reasons for this?

Disabled people face more barriers to being active than other groups of people. Disabled people experience issues with accessibility, a lack of inclusive opportunities, as well as psychological barriers to taking part. Since the pandemic, disabled people who took part in our own research[2] were less able to be active because of changes to their physical health, mental health, being more socially isolated, activities or facilities not being open as often, as well as less support from family, friends and paid support workers. We also know the cost-of-living is having a significant impact on how active many disabled people can be.

[1] Office for National Statistics. Family Resources Survey 2021-22 (2023)

[2] Annual Disability and Activity Survey 2022-23 (to be published in June 2023)

Other demographic factors

Other demographic and social factors have a significant impact on how active people are.

  • We know that a higher proportion of women than men are disabled, and the prevalence of disability increases with age[3]. Women’s activity levels have recovered slower than men’s, and while young people’s activity levels have improved since last year, they are still lower than before pandemic. Older age groups are experiencing more positive long-term trends, though inactivity sharply increases past aged 75.
  • People in lower social groups (those in semi-routine and routine occupations; long-term unemployed or have never worked) have much higher levels of inactivity, and are one of the few groups who’ve seen a significant increase in inactivity since last year. Disabled people are more likely to experience poverty and unemployment, and to be experiencing financial vulnerability with the increased cost-of-living[4].

[3] Office for National Statistics. Family Resources Survey 2021-22 (2023)

[4] House of Lords Library. ‘Cost of living: Impact of rising costs on disabled people’ (2022) 

Multiple impairments

Over 7 in 10 disabled people have more than one type of impairment. It remains that inactivity increases sharply with the number of impairments a person has, with almost half of people with three or more impairments being inactive.

  • 31.5% of people with one impairment are inactive.
  • 38% of people with two impairments are inactive, which is a significant decrease of 2.6% compared to the previous year.
  • 48% of people with three or more impairments are inactive, which is a significant decrease of 2.7% compared to last year.

Mental wellbeing and loneliness

Despite activity levels recovering to pre-pandemic levels, mental wellbeing has not recovered. Disabled people’s wellbeing remains unchanged compared to 12 months ago and has got worse since the survey’s baseline in 2015. From our upcoming annual survey release, we know 46% of disabled people say they are less able to be active due to changes to their mental health. This increases to 68% for young disabled people. The Active Lives report highlights the positive associations between activity levels and mental wellbeing.

This year, loneliness levels remain high for disabled people.

  • Disabled people are over four times more likely than non-disabled people to feel lonely often or always (16.8% compared to 3.7%).

The data shows people who are inactive are more likely to feel lonely. From our upcoming annual survey, nearly two-thirds of disabled people who felt lonely agreed that being active could help them feel less lonely (65%).

Attitudes

Active Lives demonstrates that people who are more active, and who volunteer to support physical activity, have more positive attitudes about physical activity. It continues to show a strong association between wellbeing and positive attitudes, and with lower levels of loneliness.

Disabled people are less likely to have positive attitudes compared to non-disabled people, and are seeing less improvements.

  • Capability: 17.2% of disabled people strongly agree that ‘I feel I have the ability to be physically active’, compared to 45.4% of non-disabled people. This has not changed since last year, or since before the pandemic.
  • Opportunity: 16.2% of disabled people strongly agree that ‘I feel I have the opportunity to be physically active’, compared to 38.3% of non-disabled people. This has improved slightly since last year, but overall is a decrease compared to before the pandemic.
  • Enjoyment: 17.9% of disabled people strongly agree that ‘I find sport enjoyable and satisfying’, compared to 35.3% of non-disabled people. This has remained constant since before the pandemic.

Women, older people, less affluent social groups, and people living in areas of deprivation were more likely to see negative changes in attitudes since before the pandemic.

Muscle strengthening

This year of the survey is the third to measure participation in muscle strengthening and exercise. This type of activity is important for maintaining healthy muscle and bones - and contributes to overall health and functional ability.

Disabled people remain much less likely to be meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines of taking part in strengthening activity twice a week or more: 31.7%, compared to 47.5% for non-disabled people.

Positively, disabled people have seen a small increase (1.5%) in the proportion meeting the guidelines compared to 2019-20 (30.2%). Disabled people with 3 or more impairments have seen an even larger increase of 3.4%.

Volunteering

Disabled people are less likely to volunteer in sport and activity compared to non-disabled people.

  • In the last year, 14.9% of disabled people compared to 20.5% of non-disabled people have volunteered in sport and activity.
  • Those with multiple impairments are also less likely to volunteer in sport and activity – this is 12.3% for those with 3 or more impairments. For people with 1 impairment, at 18.4% volunteer, similar to that for non-disabled people.
  • Of those who volunteered in the past 12 months, 25.2% of disabled people volunteered in coaching roles, compared to 29.9% of non-disabled people.

About the Sport England Active Lives Survey

Data from over 177,000 adults (aged 16+) in England was collected between November 2021 and November 2022 using an online and paper questionnaire. The survey contains a full year of post-coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions. The survey is carried out by Ipsos Mori, and data is weighted to key demographics and geography measures from the Office for National Statistics.

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